Thursday, August 02, 2012

Pathfinder Day is different every year that I've attended. 2010 was especially memorable with Marie Wilson and The White House Project talking about women, blogging and elections. The brilliant women in the room included candidates, elected officials, one ambassador, a CEO.

This year with Cheryl Contee and Deanna Zandt leading the charge, we Change Agents got personal. Here are some toplines from the day:

Cheryl shared her personal story of how she came to the tech world and what it was like to be among the 4-9% of women who receive venture capital/angel funding. And I deeply appreciated the courage it took for her to share what was close to her soul: "It wasn't because he felt sorry for me." Indeed it wasn't - it was because her company has an incredibly powerful product.

Deanna shared how she built strong in-person relationships and how those translated into every job she's had. Finding places to connect with people online provides more opportunity to develop relationships: listservs are great for this. She also shared the importance of metrics: using RowFeeder, for example.

Books they recommend:
War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Mastery by George Leonard
The Way We're Working Isn't Working

Use your SWOT! It's a great way to identify and clarify goals personally and professionally. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.

And realize that we all do our part to bring the world together. No one blog can- or even should- be all things to all people. There is no linear path; there is only the network, the relationships.